The Raisina Dialogue, India’s premier geopolitical and strategic conference, is organised in New Delhi from 17th -19th March, 2025. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the 10th edition of the Dialogue. Honourable Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister of New Zealand, also joined the inaugural session as the Chief Guest and delivered the keynote address. This year’s dialogue featured more than 3,500 attendees from around 125 countries, including foreign ministers, former heads of state, military leaders, business executives, technology pioneers, scholars, journalists, and experts in strategic affairs. Organized by India’s Ministry of External Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), the dialogue has become a key platform for global leaders to debate, discuss, and deliberate on the complex dynamics of international politics.
The theme for the 2025 edition is, “Kālachakra – People, Peace and Planet,” to guide discussions over three days, with global decision-makers and thought leaders engaging in dialogue across six key pillars:
- Politics Interrupted: Shifting Sands and Rising Tides: It emphasises exploring the unprecedented changes currently unfolding in the global power. The discussions were based on understanding the key powers and processes shaping the evolving global geopolitics. The dialogue focuses on developing a strategy for minimising and addressing the impact of these challenges to answer questions such as, how can a new consensus be built? What new alliances will form, and which will remain steadfast in a geopolitical landscape of constant change?
- Resolving the Green Trilemma: Who, Where, & How? : Climate change is a global challenge and it is heavily influenced by financial constraints. Tackling this issue requires addressing key questions: who should take action, where that action is needed, and how it can be effectively carried out. The discussion in the Raisina Dialogue emphasised how nations should balance economic growth with climate action, navigating the dual priorities of ensuring energy access while reducing carbon emissions. They explore innovative approaches to directing finance and technology to the areas where they are most needed.
- Digital Planet: Agents, Agencies and Absences- As technologies become more complex, the Raisina Dialogue analyses how these technologies can address global challenges, while examining their ethical implications and the need for new cybersecurity cooperation. It also highlighted how tech is driving inclusive growth, with digital infrastructure transforming innovation, public services, and financial inclusion. Additionally, the rise of AI is also raising debates on agency in the digital age.
- Militant Mercantilism: Trade, Supply Chains & the Exchange Rate Addiction: The Raisina dialogue also aims to examine the causes and impacts of economic tensions and look for ways to create resilient and equitable trade practices. The goal is to identify how new, inclusive models can be developed—a fresh trade and investment framework that maintains the benefit, while also creating opportunities for the youthful, ambitious nations driving future growth and innovation.
- The Tiger’s Tale: Rewriting Development with a New Plan: The platform recognises as the Global South-led development revolution unfolds, new frontiers for inclusive and sustainable development need to be explored, driven by democratic aspirations, gender empowerment, and grassroots decision-making; fresh partnerships need to be forged; historic ties need to be revitalised—all in pursuit of a Global South- driven post-2030 Agenda. The overarching goal of this vertical is to deliberate deeply into the Global South-led new development paradigm to make it resilient and agile.
- Investing in Peace: Drivers, Institutions, & Leadership: it is important to study the role of non-state actors, from pseudo-states to private militias, and critically assess the “new normal” of ongoing cyber-attacks that erode state sovereignty. By exploring the changing nature of conflict, the Raisina Dialogue attempts to identify the strategies that states are adopting to safeguard global security and stability, highlighting the urgent need for a peace guarantor.
In Conclusion, the Raisina Dialogue 2025 is a pivotal moment for global diplomacy, offering a stage for key international voices to converge, deliberate, and strategize on how to address the challenges that lie ahead. The conference promises to be an event of paramount importance in shaping the course of global governance in the years to come.
